preemptive 4th of July celebrations

My host brothers have been playing with a spark-maker for the past hour and are still keen on shocking themselves/each other/us. I'm getting a good kick out of this!

sobreviviré

Hannah and I were standing at 5:30AM on Saturday at the bus stop literally right across the street from our house, when two men approached us from the side and before I knew it, one of them had grabbed my bag (which I had stupidly left on the ground), and the other had threatened Hannah and took hers. I ran after them and managed to wrestle my bag back (and somehow in the process also came out with the guy's jacket, lol?). The first guy turned around, glared at me and pointed a gun at me. I did what I never hoped I would do in such a situation: I froze. I didn't block any vital organs, didn't Matrix-roll my way out of the way of danger, didn't think any potential last thoughts. Definitely didn't "see my life flash before my eyes." Just thought "oh Shit, it's a gun" and backed off, gaping stupidly. By this time our host family had ran out of the house and the neighbors were peeking out of their windows to see what was up, and all I could explain to them was "robar," pointing at my bag to Hannah to down the street. A taxi cab drove by and we hopped in with mum and circled the block a bit hoping to run into them - they had cleverly decided to hide though. Finally we came back and I dumped my camera and cell phone into my suitcase, grabbed my Bible, and stuck my cash in my sock. We got another taxi and got to the Tortuguero bus meeting place a bit late. All of this happened within 20 minutes. A frightening beginning to a good, yet at-times frustrating weekend in the rainforest and Caribbean Sea (tbc)...

some pictures from today, courtesy of Hannah!

Today's lecture was on anesthesia machines.. I can see how they make people fall asleep. xP (jk! If Rob saw this I'd be standing up the next class)








The power converter circuit we built and soldered in lab today which makes me really appreciate breadboards- AC power is used because it's cheaper, but the machines we'll see run on DC, so these will certainly come in handy!


estamos muy cansadas... zzzzz :]

Will is betting 500 colones that I won't make it

I'm going to wake up at 5:30 tomorrow before class to go run with Shannon and Will. Call me loca, but I'm determined to stay healthy and in shape while I'm here (though it's so hard with all the delicious food and sweets around.. I'm pretty sure we've gone to the supermarket every single day now haha)!

yo quiero taco Vera

Today I went to the Catholic church down the street with Hannah and our host mother, Vera. We were surprised that the whole family didn't go, and apparently it was the same for the other EWHers as well - only the mother goes to church. It was Corpus Christi today, so there was this formal procession out and into the church. Lots of tradition and kneeling seriousness, different from what I'm used to. Afterwards, we went grocery shopping with Vera - she got so much that we couldn't bring it all back ourselves! So we just called a taxi cab to take us the 3-4 blocks home haha. When we got back, I called around the other houses to see what people were up to this afternoon, but everyone was already out - I did get a clue from another host mother though, something about the internet cafe and the mall. So off we went to the mall.. other than the American stores I saw, I noticed that urban Costa Rican fashion is very flashy and not afraid to be sexy, and advertisements the most liberal I've seen anywhere. We wandered around and felt lost in the mass of commercialism and people until not long after we got there, we actually did run into a group of ten or so other EWHers at the food court! It's kind of sad how hard I had to look to find a more traditional-style food place 'cause everything is so Americanized - KFC, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Subway, Quiznos, etc. I was tempted to get Taco Bell 'cause I just love that stuff, but Vera had said we would have tacos for dinner so I held off (they ended up being infinitely better than any other taco I've ever had, besides the fact that we watched a slightly disturbing movie called Fire Serpent at the dinner table - we do have dinner conversations, but I think it's still kind of a shame that the tv is inevitably always on). We wanted to go see Up! afterwards (I wanted to see it again, with the additional bonus of getting some Spanish practice), but the line was sooo ridiculously long to get a ticket, like it stretched from one end of the mall to the other almost. Apparently the big thing to do on Sundays after church is go to the movies with your family. So Hannah and I just followed the rest of them back to their homestays to figure out where people live and chill for a bit. Shannon, Julie, Allie, and Jane are living where Dr. Malkin had stayed years earlier.. it was kind of cramped but quaint there. The household has a sad story - the university student girl had explained that her mother is divorced, but her dad lives just next door... with her mom's ex-best friend and their family together. It's common to have children before marriage here: according to Gladys the stat is something like 1 out of every 3 mothers is single, mostly because sex ed is really bad here but also partially because it's socially acceptable for men to like many women at once, to not be completely monogamous.

Later we visited the "frat house," where 8 of our boys are staying haha, and saw that it was expansive as expected (the mother cooks and cares for about 25 people now!). The cool thing about that place was that the architecture wasn't as airtight like Americans like to keep it, like the home had ups and downs and indiscreetly let open air into the kitchen. On the way there we passed by a basketball court, so we now know where to go to challenge the boys/local kids muaha. The walk back to our place wasn't bad, just about 20 minutes... we played with the dog and talked to Sharon when we got back. She had visited a family friend over the weekend instead of rafting etc. with us, and had hiked a volcano, crashed a village wedding, seen men ride fullspeed on horseback trying to pin and pull knobs with a tiny needle (some cool but dated local custom), looked at different kinds of wood and carts etc. seemed like a cool weekend for her too. Now I should be doing my Spanish homework and studying for the quiz on lab 3.. haha I think this is basically the study abroad experience I didn't think I'd ever have, but here I am!

H 2 the izzO

We went white-water rafting along 18 miles of the Pacuare River today, which was super-fun and absolutely gorgeous! We stopped at a restaurant on top of a mountain for breakfast before reaching the rafting area.. that place would definitely get the best window scenery award if there was one 'cause man, what a view. I should probably just start photo blogging, 'cause my descriptions don't do these places justice. Photos don't really either actually. xD

The sign in front of the super-scenic restaurant - "PDA Prohibited" haha

The bus ride was a bit nauseating, whipping around the mountains and bouncing along the rocky one-way roads; in fact, we did a quick stop at a pharmacy to buy motion sickness pills haha. When we finally go thtere, I randomly formed a team with Yujing, Julie, Benny, and Will - Team Duke/Best Team/PurA VidA. I was really tired by the end 'cause the course lasted a while (almost 4 hours), but the experience was incredible and different from the two other times I'd rafted in America. I think it was just exhilirating rafting and swimming through the canyon of huge cliffs and tropical rainforests, and misty rain clouds making the whole experience even more wet. The wildlife here is so exotic and vibrantly colored too - at the restaurant, Rob, our engineering instructor, found this HUGEE computer mouse Lion King sized multi-coloured beetle and posed with it on his shoulder, and on the river I saw brilliantly blue butterflies, a loud sleek black toucan, and a wild brown horse that was just standing there on the bank stone still, we all thought it was fake until it twitched a bit in response to our obnoxious paddle smacking. Halfway through the course while we were attempting some crazy level 4 rapids, the raft flipped over twice and everyone in the raft fell out! We all survived with minor cuts and bruises and were rescued by another raft close by, thankfully. That experience was a bit terrifying, it happened so fast I didn't even realize I had to stop breathing for a few seconds until I swallowed a bit of water. We were pretty shaky and cautious afterwards, but the rest of the course went well (high five the best team)! Hannah and I went to the supermarket to stock up on Costa Rican snacks and goodies after we got back to San Jose woohoo! I wanted to go check out the night scene with some of the others after dinner, but the rain was making me a bit lazy and Hannah wanted to stay in anyways, so I didn't want to risk walking around alone outside at night. It gets so dark so early here, at only 6PM!

I should've brought my safety glasses

We've only been here for two days, and already I feel like I've learned so much! The mornings start at 8AM with Spanish language class and surprisingly, I ended up being (mistakingly) placed in the most advanced level. Today we went through pretty much all the nonsubjunctive tenses/conjugations while I just sat there and tried to absorb as much as possible. o.o; I may have to drop down a level, especially since I couldn't even understand what Gladys, our instructor, wanted us to do for homework. She seems like a really no-nonsense woman, but very competent and funny when she wants to be. I think I'm going to fight it out and stay in this class though, stay intense about my Spanish learning. Lunch breaks involve wandering around for an hour and eating whatever strikes us, and it's so cheap and muy delicioso! Since our class is so expansive (there are almost 30 of us, including 9 from Duke!), we naturally split into smaller groups... I've been hanging out with pretty much the same people, but I do want to get to know everyone gradually. After lunch we have engineering class, during which our instructor Rob spits out information at rapidfire pace in two hours. Yesterday's lecture on ECGs and electrode placement and today's on pulse oximetry was stuff that I've gone through before so I could keep up more or less, but I worry that others that haven't may not be able to, including Julie the bio major. She's a real trooper. Afterwards, we have my favorite part, lab until 5PM. Today we learned how to (de)solder!, (dis)connecting wires together using heat and melted metal. The whole experience was quite electrifying and kept me on the edge of my seat as the power circuits kept shorting in the room or people's soldering irons got too hot and just kept sparking ! Didn't help that one has to keep one's face close to the work for better accuracy. Luckily, no one's eyes burned off and no fires were started - I'd call it a good day.

I love our homestay! I’m living with two baller girls (literally - we all like playing basketball and played in high school.. hoops are hard to find around here though!): Hannah from the Imperial College in London and Sharon from Georgia Tech. Our family is really nice and super-patient with our broken Spanish. It takes so much effort to try to understand what is being said and produce coherent sentences all the time though, so that just contributes to our mental exhaustion and we end up sleeping really early every day. The mother works for a lawyer, and the father is a taxi-cab driver. They have two boys, 12-year-old Mauro and 14-year-old Federico, grandpa, and another (much older) university student. And the most adorable dog ever, and two chickens! The house we're staying at is roomy and I can tell the family is relatively well-off. They have a big TV and internet, so luckily we can get online pretty easily with an ethernet cord. San Jose, Costa Rica has an uncanny resemblance to Taipei, Taiwan for me, though the weather is much cooler and bugs less bugging than expected. The three of us gave our gifts to the host family last night; besides the food, tea, and baseball hats, Hannah got the boys a propeller vehicle kit with purely English instructions. It made me so happy just to sit at the kitchen table watching Mauro try to figure out how the heck to put all the parts together. Tonight, the three of us played Colocho (Twister!) with the two boys. El pie derecho verde almost killed me, but I came out la ganador! :P I really appreciate the family, how they want to spend time with us... I have a feeling that these times chilling at home with my temporary family will be the ones that I'll cherish the most. ^^

reallySURreally

T-minus 12 hours before I leave for the airport. Excitement! Anxiety! Have the pretty standard pre-departure feeling that I missed something important while packing though, even after my dad and I spent the last two hours unpacking, rearranging, weighing, cursing, rinse and repeatx3. All because the defibrillator that EWH wants each pair of us to bring is a real heavyweight champ. That suitcase could potentially fall and kill someone even before it saves anyone. haha that'd be funny, in a totally I swear I'm not dark and sadistic I just appreciate ironic situations sort of way. hwhoooaaa man, I still can't believe I'm going to Central America!!? :]